Things to do when your child gets flu

Although cold and flu are very common issue it is usually not a very serious condition. However when it affects your child, it is essential to take good care since a child’s immune system is not fully developed. Children tend to get flu very easily and if immediate care is not taken it has the potential to develop into serious conditions. Running nose, headache, nausea, body aches, fever, feeling cold, coughing etc. are some symptoms of common flu.

When to call the doctor?
Flu sometimes comes and goes away all by itself. However, when it is about younger ones, take professional advice if you see the following symptoms

- Difficulty in breathing
- Dehydration
- Extreme loss of appetite
- Difficulty in breathing
- Continuous coughing
- Get a rattling sound while breathing
- Sudden loss of energy, dullness
- High temperatures even after intake of appropriate medicine

How to quickly rid your child of Flu 
Apart from the prescribed medication here are few points you must always take care of, when affected by flu-

1. Good Rest - Complete rest till symptoms vanish
2. Nasal Drops - Use nasal drops to support easy breathing
3. Warm Water - Warm fluids, honey-lemon potion, cough syrup for chest congestion
4. Administer Paracetamol - Fever medicines that are available specially for infants
5. Increase fluids - Abundant intake of fluids in the form of soups, fruit juices or electrolytes in water.
6. Body Sponging - Warm water sponge bath for relieving muscle or body fatigue

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Things To Do When Your Child Gets Flu


Lung cancer may not always give out noticeable symptoms in the early stages. Most cases get diagnosed in later stages. It can happen to anybody irrespective of age or geographical location although smokers fall under high risk groups. Prevention and awareness can help. Check these lung cancer symptoms as early screening/diagnosis may help people fight the disease.

1) Unstopable Cough: Be cautious if your cough lingers. While a cough associated with a cold or respiratory infection will go away in a week or two, a persistent cough that lingers can be a possible sign of lung cancer. Don't dismiss a stubborn cough, whether it is dry or mucus-producing, as "just a cough."  See your doctor right away.

2) Disrupted Chronic Cough: Pay attention to any changes in a chronic cough, esp. if you smoke. If you are coughing more often and it has gone deeper or hoarse, or you are coughing up blood or more mucus than usual, it’s time to make a doctor’s appointment.

3) Short breath: Shortness of breath or becoming easily winded is also a possible symptom of lung cancer. This symptom occurs if lung cancer blocks or narrows an airway, or if fluid from a lung tumor builds up in the chest. Keep a track of how quickly you go short on breath. Does it happen while taking stairs or doing routine jobs is a question to answer.

4) Wheezing: When air passages of the body become blocked, constricted, or inflamed, the lungs produce a wheezing  or whistling sound as you breathe. While it can be due to other causes, wheezing is also a lung cancer symptom, which is why it demands your doctor’s attention. If wheezing continues, don’t assume it’s asthma or an allergy. Let your doctor find out what's causing it.

5) Chest Pain: Lung cancer may cause pain in the chest, shoulder, or back area. These aches may not be associated with coughing. Consult a doctor if you notice any type of chest pain, whether it is sharp, dull, constant, or twitching.

6) Hoarse Voice: If there is a noticeable change in your voice that stays for more than 2 weeks, or if someone else points out that your voice sounds hoarse or deeper, get it checked out by your doctor.

7) Loss of  weight: A sudden and unexplained loss of weight can be associated with lung cancer or another type of cancer. Cancer cells use energy in the body. Do not ignore it.

8) Painful Bones: If it gets spread to the bones, lung cancer may produce pain in the back or in other areas of the body. This pain may get worsen at night while resting on the back. Notice your aches and pains, and discuss them with your doctor.

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Alert! Don't Ignore These Signs of Lung Cancer

What should you do when you are down with viral

Viral fever or in layman language, Flu causes runny nose , coughing , fever , bodyache and muscle pain. You need to isolate yourself first so that you do not spread to your near and dear ones as it really spreads fast. Common cold too is a viral infection! Many times when we think that our stomach is upset due to improper eating; but the reality is in many cases, it is viral infection. Viruses enter the body in multiple ways; it is almost impossible from stopping them entering inside. A few solutions though work wonders in keeping their effects at bay.

1. Adequate rest- Viruses take a lot away from your bodies. When you work while being affected by virus, you further bog your body down buying more opportunity for viruses to affect you more. Complete rest may sound lazy, but it in fact is a great way to start off the healing process.
2. Drink right- Drink a lot of water, a hydrated body fights virus better than one that is not. Consume fruit juices, energy drinks and vegetable soups every now and again. Stay away from dairy products like milk, butter milk, milkshakes etc.
3. Eat aplenty- Eat plenty amounts of food. When you are down with virus, you tend to lose appetite. But make sure that you eat as much as you can; this helps in replenishing the energy resource of the body which will battle the virus better. Don’t overeat though.
4. Eat it right- Eat salads, fruits, brown rice, cereals etc. In simpler words, eat light; don’t eat stuff that demands a lot of energy for digesting. If eating is difficult, vegetable soups with whole vegetables and dals in them are ideal.
5. Stay warm- Resting doesn’t just mean the lack of activity. Proper rest is when you keep yourself warm. It’s essential to feel good and almost all viral infections make you cold. Tackle this by staying inside your blanket. Use full sleeve shirts and long pants with gloves, a cap and socks supporting them. 

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What should you do when you are down with Viral Attack

No matter how well you take care of yourself, everyone catches a cold or flu at some time or the other. That s probably the reason why it is popularly known as a  common  cold. A cold on its own does not harm the body much but it leaves you feeling weakened and suppresses the immune system. Cold is a viral infection and hence is usually unresponsive to antibiotics and other medication. However, Ayurveda can help manage a cold better and speed up the recovery process.

Cough and cold can be triggered by a number of factors including a sudden drop in temperature, exposure to dust or pollen or staying in rooms with poor ventilation. Additionally, aggravating the structure, stability, and cohesiveness of the body can also cause a cold or cough. When the food we eat is not digested properly, it turns into partly digested that triggers cold or cough when it reaches the respiratory system. Some common ayurvedic remedies for coughs and colds are:

Enhance your body heat: Keeping the body warm, especially the head, throat, chest and feet, is the first step to recovering from a cold. Drinking a cup of hot spiced tea or a glass of warm water mixed with 1 teaspoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, a few times a day, can also help. Spices like cumin, coriander and black pepper are considered heat generating spices and hence should be used liberally when preparing food.
Vapour therapy: To recover from a cough that is accompanied by congestion, try inhaling the hot vapours of water mixed with a little eucalyptus oil. This helps dilate the bronchial tubes and unblocks the nostrils. Inhaling the vapours of water mixed with rock salt can help relieve heaviness in the head and a mild cold. Simple hot water vapours itself can even be inhaled to relieve sinusitis pain. To benefit from vapour therapy, it is essential to sit in a room without the fan on and to cover your head and the vapour source while inhaling the steam.
Turmeric Smoke: Inhaling turmeric smoke is said to have an antiseptic effect on the lungs and respiratory tract. To benefit from this therapy burn a dried root of turmeric and inhale the smoke a few times. If you do not have access to the dried root of turmeric, place a red hot piece of charcoal with a few dried leaves in a clay pot, add a heaped spoon of turmeric powder to this and blow gently till it catches fire before inhaling the smoke.

Common Cold & Cough - Home Remedies For It!

It is nightmarish when your babies have cough, congestion and stomach aches – and they happen often. The littles ones can't express very well, but as parents you might be able to figure out. Here are common and highly effective home remedies to these baby ailments.
 
1) COLD & COUGH : Honey is highly soothing for temporary cough relief. You can prepare a warm drink with ginger, honey, and lemon juice to drink before bedtime. The ginger and lemon soothe the throat, and the honey loosens up mucus and also acts as a gentle cough suppressant.  Don't give honey to babies ages one or under, though, due to the risk of infantile botulism. For the really little ones, a hot steam vaporizer usually does the trick. 
 
2) NASAL CONGESTION: A stuffy nose is an added challenge with babies and toddlers, as they can’t blow their nose. Prepare a solution of salt in lukewarm water, put this saline solution into the nose, then let your baby lie down for a while, and use the aspirator to remove the loosened mucus. This remedy is safe for babies as well as toddlers.
 
3) STOMACH UPSET/VOMITING:  Stomach aches or infections are the most difficult to get around and can be highly uneasy for the child. Try giving light liquids like dal/rice and vegetable stock, the best that works for everything is breat milk. If you can't breast feed, try to boil fennel seeds (sauf) in milk to make the baby's stomach feel better. 
 
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3 Must-know Home Remedies For Every Parent

Cold and cough is caused by a viral infection, which can last for about two to four weeks. The symptoms include stuffy or a runny nose, coughing and sore throat. Many times, the infection may raise body temperature and the child may suffer from fever. Our body s immune system naturally fights with such infections. Depending on the type of cough and the symptoms, the virus can stay active in the body for about 4 to 6 weeks. It is quite painful to see the child suffering from cold and cough. The symptoms of this infection are worse during the first two days.

The child will experience pain and irritation in the throat with difficulty in swallowing, frequent coughing with mucous, breathing difficulty and high fever. Most parents rush to over the counter drugs for cold and cough to ease of their child s agony. However, most drugs/ cough syrups available over the counter only provide temporary relief. Medical evidence suggests that antibiotics do not kill viruses, thus, it is not advisable to treat cold and cough with antibiotics unless accompanied by another infection. So, what do parents do? Well, there is a lot that can be done.

Let s first understand the type of a cough your child might be suffering from:



Dry cough: Generally occurs due to infection in upper respiratory tract, cold or influenza. Children with asthma and allergies are also prone to this type of cough as dry cough is triggered by smoke or dust.
Croup Cough: A harsh barking and dry cough with swelling beneath vocal cords.
Wet Cough: Most commonly caused by cold. This is an infection of the lower respiratory tract characterised by mucous secretions.
Whooping cough: Characterised by fast coughing, breathing difficulties and a whooping sound while breathing.
Apart from this, If coughing starts suddenly along with choking, the child may have inhaled a foreign body. Immediate help may be required. For babies less than 12 months of age, cold cough followed by breathing difficulties may indicate bronchiolitis and require a paediatric attention. A normal cold and cough generally subside with two to four weeks. However, it is important to understand when to consult a doctor.

Chest pain or breathing problems
Cough lasting for more than 6 weeks.
A yellow, green or brown mucous indicating another infection.
Swollen glands, persistent high fever, rashes.
Body getting pale and symptoms getting worse.
Temperature higher than 38 degrees in the case of infants.
Precautions and diet that should be taken care of

Increase Intake of fluids especially hot liquids
Never stop breastfeeding the baby
Vapour rub applied on chest and back is an effective remedy
Inhaling steam provides relief to a sore throat and nose
Intake of crushed tulsi leaves with honey or hot turmeric milk is soothing and very helpful
There is little we can do to prevent viral infections. However, proper care and caution can ensure a smooth recovery.

Cold and Cough in Children - Precautions that Parents Must Take

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